thank you switchfoot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOTcr9wKC-o&feature=fvst

Lyrics to I Dare You To Move :
Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?

[Chorus:]
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

[Chorus]

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

[Chorus]

thank you ruthie

tonight at jr high youth group, we broke into our small groups. it was the usual...there are a couple questions that we go over in our group. we are discussing prayer and how sometimes God answers it in a different way then what we expected.

back in college we did a lot of service hours. this helped us explore our God given gifts and what ministry styles we best fit into. once we knew what our passions were and where we wanted to serve in ministry, we prayed that someday God would give us the opportunity to serve in that capacity.

GracePoint is the answer to that prayer that we prayed so many years ago. for that we are excited. we pictured it going a little differently though. maybe like this...

'church x' has a position available that aaron would be perfect for. aaron applies. they accept. they pay aaron enough to support both of us. we live there forever and have babies and love everything about our church family and where we serve there. FIN.

i do the 6th grade girls' small group at yg. tonight, one of our sponsor's daughters (ruthie) was present. she is so beyond her years. ruthie gave out a couple prayer requests and i asked her if she would like to pray for those and for our group. during her prayer...she said something so simple but it hit me like a ton of bricks. 'thank you Jesus for answering our prayers. even sometimes when you answer it in a different way then we thought you would; you have a special reason to answer it in the way You are.' WOW.

how we prayed for one thing....God answered...just in a different way.

GP just opened. they have no 'position' available. they dont even look to fill positions. they look for passion and use that and then stick a 'title' on it. they cant pay us to volunteer as much as they might want to (and they have other staff members who deserve payment first at any rate). im going full time...which i wanted to be cutting back so i could someday be a mommy at home. this feels like the opposite of how we thought God would answer the prayer.

i know my Jesus has a big plan for us...and will reveal it all in His timing. i would just like the timing to be....NOW.



aaron & sonia

preface

here we go. we are getting ready to embark on our biggest journey thus far.

feb. 12 marks our last day in our respective offices here in lafayette, indiana. that weekend we have a junior high retreat in ohio so we will do that and then begin the move to valpo. we grew up in valpo so it will be nice in some ways to return home. we are definitely going to miss all of the friends we have made here and our home that we have come to love very much. however, God has called us to do something else and we need to respond....so we are.

with this transition comes a sense of excitment and joy but also a gut-wrenching worry and disappointment.

we will be helping out with a new church plant called GracePoint. we are thrilled to begin this experience. when we were in college we did a lot of service hours and were able to experience different types of churches with different ideas of how to be missional and to reach people for Jesus. we tried and had plenty of error to learn where God has given us passion and in what capacities we are truly gifted to serve. we prayed that someday God would use us in the capacity that we wanted to be used in and He has finally opened this door and said go. it has required a lot of faith, committment, and tears to get to this point....and we aren't quite there yet.

the head pastor at GracePoint is Ben Lamb. we have known him for about 11 years. he used to do something called '722' back in the day. it was nothing but worship for 2 straight hours and some of the best memories i have. so needless to say, we know ben and what he is all about. we are also looking forward to getting to know and doing some lifestuff with Daniel Doss and his wife Emily. they are incredible people!

we are pumped for the future and what it will hold. we are also excited to bring our friends along with us in our adventure. we will try and update/blog often about what we are feeling, thinking, and doing but in the mean time...



may the Lord bless and keep you. may His face shine upon you and be gracious. may the Lord turn His face to you and give you peace,

aaron & sonia